I'm skeptical of how much involvement the Tolkien Estate will actually have, especially considering they will allegedly be working 'in cooperation with' the people responsible for the 'hugely successful LOTR movie franchise.'

Then again, if I'm reading that article correctly, it seems the Tolkien Estate was the one to start talks.

Best case scenario, Chris and the lads have finally decided to take the reigns and ensure the stories are done properly - rather than let the world plunge deeper into the rabbit hole down which such travesties as the hobbit trilogy and that recent orc simulator could be found.

Worst case, we're going to get more of the same absurdist fanfiction, and the estate just finally decided it wasn't worth holding out against the pressure of so many dollars.

This is going to be either amazing or total dogshit. My gut says the latter but I hope I'll be proven wrong.

Makes me wonder about Christopher's involvement though. He's really up there in age and he has fought his whole life to prevent his dad's work from being butchered. I can't help but feel he's either really impressed by what's going to happen or someone else in the estate is running the show.

I have yet to watch a single Amazon series, but this might be a first. Honestly, the only series I'm looking forward to watching right now is Better Call Saul (2018 can't come soon enough!) and I don't want to spend a bunch of money on stuff that isn't on Google Play or what I can switch on when the kids are in bed.

It'll be a low budget prequel. Fortunately we have no shortage of those.

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"Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."

Amazon has the resources to do this right, and they've done good work on other original series, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I am more surprised at the Tolkien estate agreeing to it, especially after the mess that Jackson made of The Hobbit, but something tells me Christopher is either no longer calling the shots, or is trying to secure the long-term financial stability of the family before he kicks the bucket.

Amazon has the resources to do this right, and they've done good work on other original series, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I am more surprised at the Tolkien estate agreeing to it, especially after the mess that Jackson made of The Hobbit, but something tells me Christopher is either no longer calling the shots, or is trying to secure the long-term financial stability of the family before he kicks the bucket.

Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

Christopher hates all adaptations and changes, it's not good to put him on charge.

There's only 3 LotR movies, and no more. Not perfect, but somewhat good. Those 3, and no more. I don't care what anyone else says. I DON'T CARE.

The Lord of the Rings is much like Star Wars, there's nothing once you move away from the main stories. The setting loses its purpose once the story is over, if it ever had any purpose to begin with.

What remains is cheap fanfiction with cheap references to the good stuff. That's it. The only way they can do it properly is to make their own separate stuff, much like the Star Wars prequels. Hate on them all you want, but they grew on their own direction, and gave us a setting that worked well once expanded, which the originals (and Disney's spinoffs) are unable to.

The point is though, LotR doesn't have any major elements to bridge that potential spinoff. The rings, the five wizards, and... that's pretty much it. So, the Second Age, leading to Sauron's defeat? Maybe Angmar and the Witch King? What else remains out there?

There aren't any other decent stories in Middle Earth anyway. The Hobbit could have been something good, but it was butchered with a retarded Marvel-esque approach. The Silmarillion wouldn't work, it's mythos, designed as "lore tidbits" for the main story.

Modern TV is garbage, and I don't trust them to do anything decent without an original material they can follow properly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kakwakas

$5 says they go for the edgy emulation of GoT.

This is why.

The Tolkien state probably saw the money and want a bit for themselves, this time with a better deal for their pockets.

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

The point is though, LotR doesn't have any major elements to bridge that potential spinoff. The rings, the five wizards, and... that's pretty much it. So, the Second Age, leading to Sauron's defeat? Maybe Angmar and the Witch King? What else remains out there?

The fall of Numenor.
Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin.
The tale of the children of Hurin.
Beren and Luthien.
The many tragedies stemming from the Oath of Feanor.
The saga of Eorl the Young.

These are off the top of my head. Yeah, the Silmarillion told all of these stories in broader, more encyclopaedic style, but Christopher Tolkien has published closer retellings of "The Children of Hurin" and "Beren and Luthien" on their own that could be the basis for an adaptation. Many of the stories in the Silmarillion don't stand well enough on their own, and some lost their individuality when made into mere vignettes in the War for the Jewels, but it's not hard to find the kernel of a solid story from anything I listed above and turn it into a complete narrative unto itself.

You're shortchanging the world the professor created if you think the Lord of the Rings was the only story of value to be found.

The fall of Numenor.
Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin.
The tale of the children of Hurin.
Beren and Luthien.
The many tragedies stemming from the Oath of Feanor.
The saga of Eorl the Young.

These are off the top of my head. Yeah, the Silmarillion told all of these stories in broader, more encyclopaedic style, but Christopher Tolkien has published closer retellings of "The Children of Hurin" and "Beren and Luthien" on their own that could be the basis for an adaptation. Many of the stories in the Silmarillion don't stand well enough on their own, and some lost their individuality when made into mere vignettes in the War for the Jewels, but it's not hard to find the kernel of a solid story from anything I listed above and turn it into a complete narrative unto itself.

You're shortchanging the world the professor created if you think the Lord of the Rings was the only story of value to be found.

But those are boring as hell. If you're making a LotR spinoff without any elements from LotR, it will flop incredibly hard. Those stories are not as engaging, they were written as mythos to be referenced, not to actually develop on their own.

The "normies" have to like the series, so it won't be any bullshit about elven gods doing retarded stuff, that's for sure.

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Metzen: They are one of the ancient races of Northrend that we haven't spoken of before... because we hadn't made them up before. (laughter)

Yeah, I don't think I've got a good response to that. If you think there's not a good story to extract from the Children of Hurin, then a) there's nothing I can say to convince you otherwise and b) wow you're awful at appreciating stories.